XMen: The Phoenix of Fate
by SashaMorwood
Summary: Sarah was a fighter, a born survivor. She left that house of horrors when she was sixteen and never looked back. She met Michael on the highway to hell and a little while later,she found her herself in Xavier's school for the gifted. She met John, Bobby and Rogue. She was happy. Now Michael's back and the devil himself's been following her scent. You can't escape your past
1. Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters

"Where-Where am I?"  
"You're safe. No one will harm you here." A soothing voice came from the right of where Sarah was lying. She opened her eyes to discover she was lying in what seemed to be a hospital bed. The crisp white sheets were wrapped coolly around her and a heart monitor had been placed beside the bed. She turned her head to see a bald-headed man sitting in a wheel chair, wearing a dark blue suit. He smiled warmly at her as though he were an old friend. "My name is Charles Xavier and this is my school for gifted children like yourself."

"Gifted? Mutants, you mean?"

Xavier nodded.  
She'd never thought of her powers as a gift before. A curse yes, many times, but never a gift.

"How did you find me?" asked Sarah. The last thing she remembered was, well..she'd rather not remember it at all.

Xavier smiled at her again. "Well, my mutation is not unlike yours." Sarah raised her eyebrows and Charles blushed slightly, "Forgive me but your powers haven't gone unnoticed. When you were dreaming, you almost hit Ororo with a steel chair...You are a telekinetic are you not?"

Sarah nodded and apologized for her chair throwing.

"I also know that you have another gift but I sense that topic is not open for discussion just yet. I myself am a telepath and for over half my life I have dedicated my powers to finding mutants who are in need. As it happens I came across you by chance. I was in fact searching for another mutant by the name of Michael Danvers, have you heard of him?"

The heart monitor beeped as Sarah's heart rate peaked but only slightly, before returning to its normal pace. Xavier could feel walls going up in her mind. Rows and rows of steel barriers attempting to block everyone out. "No-no I've never heard of him."

Charles sighed before continuing, there was no point pushing her. Sarah trusted few people and pressing the matter would only alienate her completely.  
"Well, we –meaning the X-Men and I-tracked him all the way to Dakota-"

"X-Men?" Sarah cut in, "Who are they?"

Charles chuckled slightly, "They're my students, at least, they were. They're adults now and often teach at the school. The X-Men help me to track down the mutants and also to protect humans from harm by some of those who think the mutant race is of higher class than our homosapian brothers and sisters. They started out just like you, lonely and lost. No one to turn to. So I took them in and taught them how to control their powers. They came up with the name..." he blushed.  
"Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yes, we followed Victor all the way to Dakota. He seemed to be settling down there for a while so I sent out Logan and Storm to go looking for him. I gave them his exact location but when they got there, they found you instead. You'd been badly injured. Our healers have been working through the night to heal your wounds." He pointed to the white bandages encasing both her stomach and left leg. Some blood had begun to seep through just below her knee but it didn't bother her, she was accustomed to pain.

"Sarah, do you remember what happened that night? Do you know who did this to you?"

There was genuine concern in his voice and it surprised her. She wasn't used to having someone care about her. It felt slightly odd, she didn't think she liked it much.

Sarah did know one thing -she couldn't remember exactly what happened the night she was attacked. She only saw flashes, like when you're dreaming and you never really get the full picture, only snippets of it, all piled together and played over just a few seconds.

Whoever there was one thing she remembered very clearly. A face so real and fresh in her mind, it was as though he were standing before her. It was a face that haunted her since the day she realised what she was. What she was capable of.

"I may not remember exactly what happened to me Mr Xavier, but I know who did it."

The silence was her urge to continue, "My brother, Adam Grayson. My brother is the one who did this to me."

Again the silence swallowed the room. Sarah felt almost claustrophobic as Charles only stared at her in shock. This, he had not expected. An old boyfriend or enemy perhaps, but her brother? Her own flesh and blood? How could he do such a thing? Why would he?

She was grateful when the metal doors sprung open to reveal a tall, dark skinned woman with crackling white/grey hair. "Professor, I was wondering if you knew when Logan will be-" She stopped mid-sentence as she noticed Sarah lying in the infirmary.

She grinned at her, "Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling? I'm Ororo, but everybody calls me Storm." She held out her hand for Sarah to shake. Sarah obliged, "I'm fine thanks, nice to meet you. I'm Sarah."  
Xavier turned to Storm, "To answer your first question, Logan is not due back until Sunday."

Storm looked disappointed, "Okay, but I'm going to need an extra volunteer for our danger room session."

"Why don't you ask Colossus? I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

Storm nodded in agreement, "Thanks Professor. I'll see you later Sarah, it was nice meeting you."

Sarah said goodbye and sighed. She was so tired.

Xavier seemed to notice this, "Well, I'll leave you to your rest. I hope our last conversation is not over completely however we will leave it until you're at least back up on your feet. Goodnight Sarah."

"Goodnight Mr Xavier."

He left the room as Sarah turned around in the bed to face the wall. She closed her eyes tight and could already feel the events of the past few days taking its toll. Within a matter of seconds she was asleep.


	2. New Friends & New Professors

When Sarah woke up the next morning her head was throbbing. Her stomach and leg felt stiff and sore. She felt like she had both a hangover and had been hit by a bus.  
She opened her eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. 8:05 am.

She sat up on the bed. There were clean clothes neatly folded on the chair beside her bed.  
She carefully got off the bed and picked them up. There were grey tracksuit bottoms, a white vest top and a grey jacket. Nothing special, except there was a symbol on the breast of the jacket, a black circle with an X in the middle.

Sarah put the clothes on and carefully walked to the door. She winced every time she leaned on her left leg.  
The door slid open to reveal a long corridor. The panelled walls were blue in colour and she got the feeling Mr Xavier liked the colour.  
She followed the corridor to an elevator. She got in and was about to press a button when the door closed itself and the elevator shot straight up. Sarah gripped the handle on one of the walls, feeling slightly sick.  
Suddenly the elevator stopped and the door opened, showing yet another corridor. Only, this one looked a lot older. The walls were wooden, as well as the floor and a chandelier hung from the cream coloured ceiling.

Sarah got out of the elevator and began walking down the hall. She came to the door at the very end and heard a voice coming from the other side.  
"Well that concludes our lesson for today, class dismissed."

Suddenly a group of teenagers came bursting through the door, almost trampling Sarah as they went.  
Within seconds they had disappeared and Charles Xavier was sitting at his desk with a bright smile on his face, "Ah, Sarah, glad to see you up and about."

Then he wheeled his way across the room to meet her at the door, "I trust your leg will hold out for a tour?"  
Sarah mutely nodded.  
"Marvellous, let's go then."

Sarah didn't realise how huge this place really was. It was bigger than the White House...well, she guessed it was bigger than the White House.

When the tour was over, Xavier showed Sarah to her room. It was, again, bigger than she expected it to be; it had to be at least the size of a classroom.

The floors and walls were wooden and there were two single beds lying on opposite sides of the room. "You'll be sharing your room with Rogue, she should be here soon so I guess I'll leave you to it. You can call by my office in the afternoon if you'd like, I'd like to know how you're settling in."

Sarah thanked him and sat gingerly on the end of what was to be her bed.

She had only been sitting for two minutes when a girl came into the room.

Her hair was long and dark brown in colour, with a grey streak at the side.  
She smiled, "Well hi there, you must be Sarah, my new roommate?"  
Sarah smiled back, "That would be me, nice to meet you."  
Sarah held out her hand for her to shake. Rogue hesitated before obliging. Sarah noticed that she was wearing gloves.

"Bit warm for those, is it not?"  
Rogue quickly placed her hands behind her back. "Umm it's my mutation. I need certain restrictions around other people. No skin-to-skin contact."  
Sarah acknowledged this, "Bummer."  
Rogue laughed and nodded, "I know. So, you must be hungry, d'you want to come with me to the cafeteria?"  
"Yeah, sure, I'd love to."

The cafeteria was in the west side of the school. It looked like an over sized kitchen with dozens of wooden tables and chairs in the centre.  
There were several professors and students gathered together, having lunch.  
Rogue led Sarah to get a tray of food before they sat down at a table with two boys who were introduced to her as Bobby and John. (who said he preferred the name Pyro)

After they had finished eating John spoke up. "Okay, enough idle chit-chat. I wanna know what you can do."  
Sarah smiled sweetly at him, "You first."  
John grinned and pulled a Zippo from his pocket. It had a shark painted on the side. He flipped it open and flames erupted from the tip. He set his other hand to the side and the fire shot from the lighter into his hand.  
It increased to twice its original size and then shrunk again when one of the professors told him off.  
Sarah nodded, "Impressive."

She turned to Bobby, "And what about you?"  
He blushed but placed his right hand on the table. A few seconds later he removed his hand to reveal a rose made from pure ice.  
John rolled his eyes, "Please."  
"Nice." said Sarah.

"So, c'mon, you next." said John.  
"Fine." She easily removed John's Zippo from his pocket, flipped it open and when the flames appeared she molded it into a sparrow and sent it flying around John's head before closing the lighter over and returning it to his pocket. All without lifting a finger.  
"Well...that was awesome...and a little bit arousing." confessed John, his eyebrows raised.  
Sarah shrugged and laughed.

Just then a tall man wearing a leather jacket, white vest and jeans walked in. Sarah heard a small intake of breath from Rogue and the boys stifled laughter.  
Sarah leaned in and whispered to John, "Who's that?"  
"That's Logan. He's a sub, and Rogue has a huge crush on him."  
"I do not!" she hissed.  
All of them laughed, except for Rogue, as Logan sauntered over to their table. "Hey there guys, how's it going? This the new kid?"  
"I have a name, it's Sarah." She raised her eyebrows at him.  
He raised his back and Rogue stared at her, "My apologies, Sarah. So what can you do?"  
Sarah sighed, she really was getting tired of this. She pulled a can of soda from the fridge and put it in Logan's hand.

Logan looked down at the drink in his hand, "Oh, telekinetic."  
"What about you?" Logan knitted his eyebrows together and unsheathed adamantium claws from in between his knuckles.  
"Cool." admitted Sarah.  
Just then Storm walked in wearing black trousers, a top and what looked like a cape, "Logan, c'mon, danger room session in five minutes."  
Logan rolled his eyes, "Storm, I just got here, besides I'm just a sub, Scott should be the one doing all this."  
"Yeah, well, Scott's not here is he? Now hurry up."  
Logan sighed and waved a goodbye as he exited the cafeteria.

Sarah turned to Rogue, "Danger room session?"  
"It's just training." She answered, "There's a room modified to represent a war zone. Basically, you train for battle, learn to control your power and defeat the bad guy."  
"Oh, sounds fun." Rogue stared at her. "Fun? What's fun about being locked in a room for over three hours, trying to fight your way out?"  
"C'mon, I'm new, this stuff is exciting to me. You're supposed to go along with it." she joked. "Besides, I enjoy war zones."  
They didn't know if she was serious or joking, so they said nothing. An awkward silence followed until John couldn't take it anymore, "So, Sarah, where are you from?"  
"Oh, umm well, I was born on the edge of a small town in Dakota. But I left when I was seventeen and I've moved around a lot since then." Her tone was guarded, defensive.  
They decided not to ask much more about it. So Sarah decided, "Well, I'd better go and see Mr Xavier, I'll see you later?"  
Her question was pointed at Rogue but both Bobby and John answered. "Yeah sure."  
"Of course."  
Rogue laughed, "Yeah, see you later Sarah."  
"Bye guys." Sarah got up and walked back to her room. Surprisingly, a pile of new clothes had been set on her bed, along with a toothbrush and a new pair of trainers.  
It was like being on holiday.  
_But if I was on holiday, Michael would be here too _she thought.  
Sarah wondered where Michael was at this very moment, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her...if he was still alive.

Little did she know that Michael was indeed very much alive, and headed her way.


End file.
